„Getting used to a demanding work in aerospace wasn't easy, but it was worth it.“Barbora Leon NazarioQuality Analyst

In the past, Barbora worked in the quality control for automotive industry. Currently, she's Quality Analyst at Aero. At her current jobs, she was most surprised by the difference between the demands of automotive and aerospace industry. She considers the aerospace job to be harder, but also more interesting.

Barbora, tell us, what position do you hold at our company?

I came to Aero in April 2015, and I work as Quality Analyst. My job is analysing and corrective measures, setting up processes with quality control tools like FMEA or Control Plan, FOD training and implementation. I work on quality control for CSeries programme, where we manufacture the entering edge of the wing for Bombardier. I also deal with the client frequently.

What do you see as biggest benefit of working at this position at Aero?

Formerly, I worked in automotive, where it was mostly about „perceived quality“, but here, it's technical quality. I have to understand all the processes that take place here. You have to be able to read blueprints, understand models and so on. It's more about the technical side of things than the perceived quality I was used to. That's why I had to become more focused on technology and get educated in this way. Certainly it's no stereotypical job.

Where do you see the biggest difference between automotive and aviation industry?

The biggest difference is that in aviation, you can’t use automotive standards, because the aviation industry is a very specific field, where only true professionals can work and everyone needs to know his job 100%. From my viewpoint, there's very little that can be applied here from quality control in automotive.

Aviation is considered to be a man's world. How do you feel as a woman in this field?

Now, it's good, although the beginnings were tough. Especially for me as a woman in the technical position – yes, even quality is a technical thing. For the first few month, I felt like I've never worked in quality control nor in technology before and „guys“ here didn't think much of me. The colleagues who grew up here are true experts in their fields, and I had my share of suffering here (laughter). I had to put much work in and get ahead among all these experienced aviation engineers, technologists, quality analysts... my previous experiences were rich, but not useful enough in aviation. Later, though, I got to know my stuff here – or at least I think so – and my male colleagues now happily discuss technical stuff with me, and even let me have my say.

What would you recommend to people who want to work for us? What to prepare for and what to expect?

You have to prepare for a lot of work. Even though Aero is a very advanced company, some processes are not set up perfectly and there is a space for improvement. Which can, of course, be great opportunity for those who are interested in challenges and improvement.